A block and more pillows

I'm trying to brace myself for being away from my sewing machine for - gasp - a whole month! Thankfully a few days after that stint, I'll be heading off to a quilting retreat, which means intense sewing time. That balances out, right? Maybe.

I am sad I will miss out on a couple blocks in the Modern HST Sampler QAL. Here is my version of Block #4, Stepping Stones.

I'm also working on a pair of pillows. I saw a pillow on IG I loved and just had to make one. Well, more accurately two. I jumped in without thinking about the quilty math too much (sounds like a theme on this blog) and didn't get it quite right. But by then I had all the fabric cut out so I had no choice but to forge ahead. It worked out OK. I wouldn't have had enough of the cream fabric otherwise, and I only had to trim off an excess half-inch to make the blocks square. Not too obvious, I don't think. It's a variation on the classic Delectable Mountains quilt pattern. Usually it's made by cutting up HST, but here I used HRT. If I got the math right, it would have yielded a square block, which is much easier to use for a pillow.

Then I got to quilting. I had the perfect shade of a goldy cream Aurifil that had been given to me. I love when that happens. The first I did in my more usual pattern.

For the second, I tried something new. It took longer because I had to mark every line, while normally I use my foot edge a lot for a spacing guide. I really like how it turned out.

I just happened to pick up a gold CF Botanics print earlier in the week (that's a whole other story!!) that just happens to go wonderfully with these fabrics, so I figured I should use it and add binding. Which then lead to a visit to the local sewing machine shop for a stitch in the ditch foot so I can sew the binding down by machine. That will add time to what otherwise would be a quick finish, but it's too perfect to not use.